Page 14

Page 15

REVIVAL OF PURITANISM.

Are important and palpable, but neglected truth, merits more ear- nest inculcation than it has obtained,—namely, that the world was not meant to be all alike. Into whatever domain of Creation we penetrate we find infinite variety ; and from this constitution so- cial existence forms the least exception. No two men are identi- cally the same ; in shape or air, in passions or intellect, they differ : and it is well to be so. Without it, we should be abnormal to all around us ; unsuited alike to the moral and the physical exigenejea of our condition. Differences and agreements, antagonism and sympathy, competition and cooperation, give to life its movement, and make society what- it is apparently meant to be—not a dead or unformed mass, but a breathing, stirring, mutually assisting entity. Against this pervading arrangement does it not savour of presumption to rebel? So long as we act conformably to Nature— so long as, subordinate to reason, we listen to her intimations, and try to fulfil her great design—so long the issues we aim at are likely to be successful. But if we become dissenters from her laws—sectarians in worship, not the followers of her orthodox in- stitutes, the true orthodoxy for all—then we can only expect re- sistance and ultimate failure. In the former course, the Supreme Disposer, whose purposes may be deferred but can never be de- feated, is with us ; in the latter, against us : we are alone, wind and tide opposing, and can never hope to reach the destined port. Obvious, often-told, and long-established as this constitutional system is, a sect of reformers seem disposed to call it in question and contest its supremacy. Without accredited testimonials for so great an undertaking—With no established repute for superior wis- dom, science, statesmanship, or knowledge of any kind to attest their competence—they have adjudged mankind to be wrong and in need of reform. To mend the world is a bold design : but they are not content with mending, which might be permitted ; they soar higher, wish to create afresh, in conformity with their own small type of imagined excellence—to reverse irreversible decrees, and reduce society to one cheerless blank homogeneity. This is their error. It is not the first attempt to scale Heaven and annul its ordinances ; but they always end, as they did some four thousand years past on the plain of Zoar, in utter defeat and confusion. Extravagant as their aspiration is, it forms the Ultima Thule of the Purists. Ostensibly and. as a first step, they seek only to lessen Sunday labour; and if this 'were' all; few or 'any would be-

grudge the concession. 1Jpon the sanctities and inestimable utilities THE SUNDAY POST DIVISION : THE DESERTERS.

of the Sunday, all parties and sects, believers and unbelievers, are IN extenuation of their untoward concession to Lord A shley,

obstinaey. Men hate coercion in trifles, in mere hobbies perhaps,

and spurn and detest the authors. They feel such intrusion imper- err' BONO ?

versa! toleration—to heal, not create divisions—is the want of the as to moral censor, probably they were never less needed since the Deluge, or its anterior epoch, the Golden Age. If society has any pervading feature, it is that the gravities obtain too much and the gayeties too little attention. Peace has been mostly

found less favourable to internal order' temperance, and industry,

telligenee. suggesting other sites that would have been better. The meaning